Absent from the world tennis circuit since January and suffering an injury to his left leg, Rafael Nadal affirmed on Wednesday his intention to play again, without giving a return date.
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“I think I’m going to play again.” During a press point organized at the Tennis Clinic in Barcelona, Wednesday November 15, Rafael Nadal expressed his intention to return to the courts, almost a year after his last official match. The Majorcan was injured iliopsoas of the left leg during his defeat in the second round of the Australian Open against Mackenzie McDonald, on January 18. He had to have surgery in June.
If at the moment it is impossible to give a precise return date, the “progress has been positive” and he hopes to announce “something concrete” in the coming weeks. Today falling to 664th place in the ATP rankings, the player with 22 Grand Slam titles, who has resumed hitting the ball, had mentioned last September that he planned a convalescence of at least five months, and that 2024 could be the last season of his career, at 37 years old.
A hoped-for return to the forefront, perhaps for the Australian Open, even if he knows “that it will be difficult to find a very high level of tennis”but he claims that he would not have made all these recovery efforts if he had not “no hope of being competitive again.”
As for possible new Grand Slams to catch up with Novak Djokovic (22 against 24 for the Serbian), the Spaniard was, as often, very cautious. “I’m not going to win more Grand Slams than Novak Djokovic, but I’m going to give myself the opportunity to have fun again. I’m training, I’m happy.”